Judge gives prison 30 days to allow Muslim prayer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge has given the government 30 days to start allowing American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh and other Muslim inmates to hold ritual group prayers outside their cells in a high-security prison in Indiana.

Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson on Friday said the Bureau of Prisons might have misconstrued her Jan. 11 ruling granting Lindh’s request to pray in groups at the federal prison at Terre Haute. Officials are allowing only two Muslims to pray together in a cell.

The judge clarified her order by saying the prison is to allow Muslims to pray together outside their cells at any Islamic prayer time that comes when other prisoners are allowed out in groups.

However, Magnus-Stinson denied Lindh’s motion to hold the warden in contempt.